I am SO excited to be heading back to Walt Disney World for my third Dopey Challenge. I always feel like Marathon week at Disney World is electrifying. It is like the biggest of the big runDisney events. So many fun people, events, costumes, and activities. I am ridiculously excited to run 48.6 miles again (words I never thought I would say).

It is always a little challenging to stick to my training routine during the holidays, but some how I make it work every year. The other part is 4 races means I need to create 4 costumes! Oh boy, my 5 year old loves this part.

runDisney has released the design for the new 2016 Star Wars Half Marathon- Light Side purses. These are the ones for the Disneyland races in January. You can preorder here. Select “registration” and then “comparative items”.

You can read about the 10k here. I had a head cold and wasn’t feeling super awesome. I went with a comfortable Spiderman (girl?) dress for the race. The race started at 5:30am. Out of the 4 half marathons that are ran at Disneyland, this is my least favorite course purely because you don’t get a lot of time inside the parks. It is less than 2 miles of park running. The weather this year was MUCH better than last years Avengers Half weather though.

The characters along the course were the same ones that were out at the Avengers 10k the day before. Black Widow was out first. I found Hawkeye near the exit of California Adventure . I had 5 picture on my phone of me and Hawkeye and all of them look like this. I don’t think he is looking at my face. haha

You don’t run through the castle for the half marathon. The closest you come to it is running through the gates of Frontierland.

Captain America was in Frontierland.

Thor was near the Matterhorn.

Then we exited the park to backstage area in Tomorrowland around to the gate right by Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln and out to the turnstiles. The Christmas tree is up and gorgeous.

We ran out to Angel Stadium, but it is a different direction than the Disneyland Half course. You come along a trail from the opposite direction and you are on the trail for a lot longer at this race. Along the trail was a lot of cosplay people and that was awesome.

We get to run around the field inside the stadium.

Outside of Angel Stadium was more cosplay and real military personnel cheering us on.

The spectators along the course are always amazing. I love free candy from strangers 🙂

We made our way back to Disneyland for the finish line. I earned my Avengers Half Marathon medal and the additional Infinity Gauntlet Challenge medal. I always have fun at the runDisney races. It is so great to see friends. I would love to see more mileage inside the parks at this race, but still had a good time.

I almost didn’t go. I will start by saying that. I had been traveling every weekend before this for 4 weeks. I had come down with a bad head cold and I was just going to write it off the Avengers race weekend. Driving 6 hours to Disneyland, getting up at 3:45am and running a 10k and a half marathon just didn’t sound good a couple days before the weekend. I had told friends I was coming. Well, believe it or not, it was my husband who actually talked me into it. I’m glad I did because we had a lot of fun and we got to see the Christmas Parade. My little monkey ran her kids race and got another medal and the whole family was happy. It was a win win.

Back to the Avengers 10k. I got up at 3:45am. I put on my Her Universe Thor dress and headed over to the race. The race started on time at 5:30am.

The 10k course was basically the same one as the Disneyland 10k. I really like the course. Basically the first 2 miles are outside of the park and then the last 4 are all park miles. The 10k course actually has more inside the park miles than the Avengers Half Marathon course does, just an FYI.

The first character we came across was Thor inside California Adventure. He is my not so secret man crush.

I stopped for a sunrise picture with Mickey’s Fun Wheel and the World of Color fountains were going.

Next was Black Widow in the Hollywood area.

Hawkeye was near Small World.

We got to run through the castle. Another FYI, for the Avengers Half Marathon you don’t run through the castle.

Captain America was in Frontierland.

The last mile is exiting out through the backstage of Disneyland and running through Downtown Disney to the finish line. I had a really good time. It was great to see friends and my head cold didn’t bother me too much. I ran back to the hotel after the race to get my little monkey and head to her kids race that was at 9:00am.

She had a great time at her race too.

The 10k is definitely the “pro” about the Avengers race weekend and the half marathon course is definitely the “con” in my opinion. The next morning I was getting up to run the Avengers Half Marathon to finish my Infinity Gauntlet Challenge.

The Wine and Dine Half Marathon has always been one of my favorite courses. It is a night race and you get to run through Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. My favorite part has always been running through the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. In 2014, it poured rain the entire race. You can read about that one here. This year the Florida weather was at it again.

My family and I left CA after school Friday and flew to Orlando. We landed at 1:00am. My daughter ran her 200m and 1 mile kids races starting at 10:00am Saturday. It was already a billion degrees…ok maybe about 90, but with the humidity it felt like a billion. After her races we headed to lunch and then some fun at the Magic Kingdom. We only had the one day there and wanted to make the most of it, so we went to Hollywood Studios after the sun went down to see the Osborne Lights as a family. I quickly rushed back to hotel to get ready and get on the bus for the race.

Let’s talk costume. I wanted something a little creative, so I came up with Ariel when she washed up on shore. I even ran with my dinglehopper.

I got to ESPN Wide World of Sports around 8:45pm with enough time to check my gear bag and I was about to start heading to my corral when they made an announcement that we all need to calmly evacuate into Champion Stadium at ESPNWWOS because of lightening strikes and severe weather heading straight for us. Amazingly enough all 15,000 of us calmly…but very slowly headed to the buildings. For the most part people were ok. There was a DJ inside the building I was in. We were in the buildings for about an hour total.

The race was suppose to start at 10:00pm and we didn’t get the “ok” to leave the buildings until 10:15pm. We didn’t really know what would happen. We made our way to the corrals and they announced that the course would be shortened. They said they took 6 miles off the course, which meant no Animal Kingdom. This is a bummer, but safety is most important and it was out of runDisney’s control. Florida weather isn’t my favorite and this didn’t help my feelings about it at all.

On the positive side, it was VERY HOT and VERY HUMID, so it might have been for the best.

On the negative side, there were some people that were so upset by this they apparently decided to take it out on the rest of us. The course was quite congested because it had been shortened and these people who were already angry came blazing through pushing, shoving and being over all very rude. This didn’t help anything. I got shoved into a curb and almost fell. I watched this happen to more people than just myself. Being angry because of something that was out of anyones control and being an A**hole (pardon my language) about it doesn’t help the problem, it only makes it worse.

I stopped for pictures and decided to make the best of it.

Country Bears at Mile 1.

Wow, that is the fastest 8 miles I ever ran! (The mile markers were not adjusted with the shortened course. To bad I can’t use this time for a proof of time!)

Buzz Lightyear and Woody in Hollywood Studios.

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.

I finished and got my medal. I think I should put a sticker on it that says “Half of A Half Marathon” because we only ran 6.7 miles.

I enjoyed a Grey Goose Limon Slush in France at Epcot during the after party and then made my way back to the hotel.

Overall, I feel like the best was made of a not perfect situation. With the exception of a few individuals who were big time grumpy pants and got physical about it, I had a good time.

My thoughts on next year: One of the big reasons I love this race is running through the Osborne Lights and this is their last year. Without the lights and with the past 2 years of not awesome weather I might think twice about registering again. Sad, but true.

Lily pointed out we haven’t had any donations lately for our fundraising campaign. She asked to make a sign. I said, “What do you want it to say?”. She replied “Happy Tuesday. Anyone want to donate?”. I thought that is pretty straight and to the point. Lol

We are still fundraising for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. I am running a 5k, 10k and half marathon in February for at Princess Half Marathon Weekend and Lily will be running the 200m and 1 mile kids races. Some of you know, Lily spent the first 2 weeks of her life in the NICU of a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, being born weighing 3 lbs 15 ounces. She is now a healthy and happy 5 year old and we want to give back

Every donation counts! Thank you all so much for the support you have given us!

Early registration opens Tuesday, September 15th at 9:00am PST/ Noon EST for the Star Wars Half Marathon- The Dark Side Weekend at Walt Disney World. If you are DVC or an annual passholder at either Disneyland or Disney World you can register early starting at 9am PST. I always recommend registering as early as possible for all runDisney events because they usually sell out fast.

HERE IS A STEP BY STEP WALKTHROUGH OF FINDING THE EARLY REGISTRATION PAGE:
To register you need to log in to your DVC site or the Disneyland or Walt Disney World Passholder sites. On the Disneyland Annual Passports area, click on Disneyland News and there should be a link to the “Register Early for runDisney events”. On the Walt Disney World site go to “My Disney Experience” and scroll down to “Annual Passholders“. Once in the Annual Passholders section click on “Events and Special Offers” and you should see the runDisney early registration option.

Sunday, September 6th, 2015 was the 10th running of the Disneyland Half Marathon. I had ran the 5k and 10k the days before. It was my third very early wakeup call. The race started at 5:30am. As a lot of you know my 5 year old helps me with my race costumes and she had decided I should dress as Anna from Frozen Fever, so I did. We started out coming into California Adventure through the backstage area. I always love the fountains of World of Color being on. It is beautiful.

The first characters I found was Pinocchio and Honest John.

Shortly after them near Carthay Circle I found Aladdin and Jafar.

We made our way through the esplanade over to Disneyland. Princess Tiana and the Dr. Facilier were in Frontierland.

Snow White and the Evil Queen were waiting for me in Fantasyland.

A picture with the castle is a must.

Captain Hook and Peter Pan were near Small World.

We started to make our way out of the park through the backstage area and right before we exited was the parade float Mack from Cars. He’s huge!

There were lots of spectators and crowd support along the streets, like these lovely ladies. Some of you might recognize Patty who writes the blog My No Guilt Life.

I love the website MousePlanet.com and they always have a huge support area at the runDisney races. They were handing out candy. I love candy from strangers.

There were so many amazing cars out on display. Here are a few.

We got to run inside Angel’s Stadium which is always fun.

We then made our way back to Disneyland where the finish line was waiting for us.

I had a great time running my 5th Disneyland Half Marathon. I just want to add that is was also my anniversary that day. Happy anniversary to Mr. Half Crazy Mama 🙂Did you run the Disneyland Half Marathon?

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